> The average price, according to a 2013 Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report, is about 4 cents per dollar, which means a $200 credit card balance goes for $8 on the secondary market.
Wow, that is cheap. Is there a way to buy your own debt?
Wow, that is cheap. Is there a way to buy your own debt?
The banker's first reaction was: This can't be real. A week later, the banker called my dad back and said: Sure enough, the numbers say that we should sell you your mortgage. But we also found out that it's illegal.
I don't know the details of why it might have been illegal, but it was an amusing episode.
If so, suppose two borrowers team up and buy each others' mortgages?
See:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/06/john-oliver-...
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You can, however, dispute your debt and make the process of collecting it legally arduous
There are some difficulties in there such as the individual who got the loan written off, may have to pay income taxes on a part of the loan. It's still nice of course, but it's certainly not straightforward.
A thing you can do, quite successfully, is say “I will offer you $20, in full satisfaction of this $200 debt and anything you are tacking onto that. Give me that in writing and you’ll get a check via courier.”
(I long ago had a hobby of getting people out of consumer credit situations by writing letters, and this is one genre of the letter. Note that it won’t always work; the firm can’t make a practice of selling debt at basis, obviously, but something beats nothing and you can often convince them that those are their two options.)
It is very, very important that if one does this one gets the deal in writing, otherwise it has a bad tendency to a) be treated as a payment rather than a pay-off and b) guarantees they and other creditors will call you harder because you’ve signaled that you are in the N% of accounts willing to pay.
Whilst you're here, I must thank you for the wonderful advice in your article on that subject, which was posted in this place some years ago. If I were to distil it down to a single phrase I think it would be "present as if you're collecting a paper trail".
This was hugely helpful in helping me help my wife dispense with an egregious parking charge last year, and I feel it has put me in good stead to handle similar matters in the future.
I owe you a drink.
https://www.kalzumeus.com/2017/09/09/identity-theft-credit-r...
A service that lets you do this would be hilarious, but would probably collapse the marketability of consumer debt instruments.
If you’re a normal professional with a standing credit card debt that you pay off every month? Then no this debt is likely not for sale at a discount.
To liquidate it, or to replace it with an asset that has a better return.
> The only reason may be to release capital.
But if you have normal consumer debt and are a typical professional this isn’t likely to apply to you.